2008 Awards Gala Chair

George Quesnelle was appointed President of GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare, North America effective January 1, 2004.

George joined SmithKline Beecham in Pittsburgh in 1992 as Vice President and Director Switch Development, Medical Marketing and Sales in the U.S. business where he was responsible for development and planning of Rx to OTC switches.  In this capacity, he was responsible for the launches of Tagamet HB, Nicorette and NicoDerm CQ.

With the merger of SmithKline Beecham and Glaxo Wellcome in 2000, George became President, International Established Markets for GSK Consumer Healthcare and relocated to Philadelphia.  The countries in the Established Markets Group included Japan, the Indian sub-continent, Australia, New Zealand and Sub-Saharan Africa.

In early 2002 he was appointed Senior Vice President for Strategic Development, with worldwide responsibility for strategic planning, global marketing, medical marketing, e-marketing and Rx to OTC Switch activities for GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare.

Prior to joining GSK, George spent 13 years with Marion Merrell Dow in a variety of positions on both the prescription and OTC sides of the business. These positions included pharmaceutical sales and sales management, product management on the Rx side and brand management on the OTC side. As a prescription brand manager, he launched Seldane, the first non-sedating antihistamine, in 1985. 

George has both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in English and Education.  Before entering the business world, he taught high school English for 8 years in a large suburban high school.